Category: Review

Reviews from all of the movies we have seen lately, including everything in theaters and on DVD.

IP MAN 3 – The Review

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Many big screen biographies are often accused of taking…liberties…with the facts, often to help the finished film’s pacing. After all, unless it’s a TV mini-series, it’s difficult to compress a remarkable life into an evening at the movies. Film makers will frequently switch the order of events along with the popular practice of using composite characters (a little bit of this fella’, and a bit of this old pal, and…), even inventing supporting roles, or tagging real folks with invented names. And then there are fantasy tales using a real person (and elements of his life) as the story’s heroic center. In Hollywood famous true Western outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James were the leads in many fictional flicks (hey, those two “met” Dracula and Frankenstein’s daughter!). Those on the opposite side of the law like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson got their share of screen time, to say nothing of the Davy Crockett craze created by Walt Disney is the 1950’s. Lawmen of later years were also at the center of media franchises like Elliot Ness in “The Untouchables” and Buford Pusser in “Walking Tall”. Well, a similar film and TV feeding frenzy has been going on for the last dozen or so years over in China with the legend of a real man named Yip Kai-man, perhaps known best as Ip Man. He was the martial artists master (his specialty was Wing Chun) who trained silver screen icon Bruce Lee. Ip was the subject of 2013’s Oscar nominated THE GRANDMASTER. And since he was not a fictitious (and copyrighted) figure, many other Asian studios have made competing flicks (even a weekly TV show). The most popular may be the film series begun in 2008 starring Donnie Yen (BLADE II, and the upcoming ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY). The current (and supposedly final installment) takes us into the master fight trainer’s time in 1950’s Hong Kong with IP MAN 3.

To be precise, it’s HK circa 1959 and Ip Man (Yen) is running a martial arts training center while sharing a home with wife Cheung Wing-Sing (Lynn Hung) and seven year-old son Ip Ching (Wang Yasn Shi). After a scene in which an aggressive young man tries to become one of Ip’s students (we find out later that he is really…no spoilers from me!), we see Ching engaged in a schoolyard smack down with another classmate. When Ip and his wife are called into the principal’s office (the other lad’s pop is stuck at work), Ip has the boys shake hands and invites the other boy, Fung, to their home for dinner. After the meal, Fung’s father, Tin-chi (Jin Zhang) arrives to pick up his son. Tin has a rickshaw service, but hopes to open his own training center (he compliments Ip on his skills). Later we find out that Tin supplements his income by fighting in a black market boxing match organized by gangster Ma King-sang (Patrick Tam), who also works for a “foreign devil”, a shady American property developer named Frank (Mike Tyson…yes that ole ear-chomper!). Franks has his eye on some land , namely the school where Ching and Fung attend. When Ma and his gang of thugs try to strong-arm the principal to sign over the deed to the school, IP intervenes. His policeman pal, Sergeant ‘Fatso’ Po (Kent Cheng) can offer little help: the force is short-handed and his commanding office, another foreign devil, is in Frank’s pocket. Ip, along with his students, will guard the school. This time away from home makes Wing feel neglected and contributes to her worsening health. Ip tries to keep his family together as his duty brings him into a showdown with Frank and eventual rival Tin.

While the aforementioned GRANDMASTER was the art house/critical darling, this would be the more family friendly version of this real life icon, perhaps one that could easily play on TV (hmmm, makes me wonder about the actual Ip TV show). The two recent RAID films brought back a real sense of danger and brutality to martial arts movies with deadly,  bloody bone crunching blows causing true damage to the battlers, but here no one appears to get terribly hurt. The school principal has some jaw bruising and one of Ip’s pals has his arm in a sling. The highly planned fights nearly remind one of the 60’s Batman TV show, with the bad guys getting knocked out quickly (we almost expect animated stars and cartoon birds circling their noggins). Another almost camp element is the near endless army at Ma and Frank’s beck and call. Once Ip and his cohorts take a battle stance, endless streams of thugs come charging from every alley and doorway (a cliche so expertly parodied in the “A Fistful of Yen” segment in 1977’s KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE). The US ads feature Tyson prominently, but he has just around five or six minutes of screen time. And yes, he does speak English most of the time, with a few Chinese phrases tossed in (luckily it’s all subtitled for us). Still, he’s an impressive, scary screen presence, although it’s doubtful that his brute force could match Ip’s speed and skills (prior to this showdown, he has easily taken out dozens of men). But their three-minute brawl is not the film’s showcase scene. Rather it’s the finale’s throw down with Tin as they go from swinging long “dragon poles” to “butterfly swords” (right from the chefs at Benihanna) and finishing with precise hand to hand combat. Happily some of the action is slowed down, but never excessively so we can appreciate the swiftness of the very impressive Mr. Yen (for a fella’ in his fifties he’s still got the moves). Though the story gets a tad goofy at times (Ip will repair his marriage by learning a newskill…ballroom dancing!), “chop-socky” fanatics should enjoy the action set pieces cause in IP MAN 3 “everybody’s kung-fu fightin'” and they’re “faster than lightnin'”.

2.5 Out of 5

IP MAN 3 opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Wehrenberg’s Ronnies 20 Cine

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Africa World Documentary Film Festival Review – NASCENT

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Review by Stephen Tronicek

NASCENT screens at the Africa World Documentary Film Festival Friday, February 5, 2016 at 6:00. The festival takes place at the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd (63112). For a complete schedule of all of the films, go HERE

It’s one thing to find a good documentarian. It’s another to find a good documentarian with artistic vision. In just six short minutes documentarians Lindsey Branham, and Jonathan Kasbe unleash a surrealist documentary that through sheer force of vision leaves the viewer perplexed.

NASCENT follows the story of two young Central African Republic children each telling their own story about the result of the war going on in their country. These stories won’t be revealed here since this is a six minute film. That said Nascent isn’t all about those stories. There’s a splash of aforementioned surrealism in here that allows the stories to not only become more powerful in themselves, but also allows the film to shine in it’s undeniable beauty. Also the fact that surrealism is ultimately better at pulling out emotions than anything straightforward is fully apparent. NASCENT seems to be the best short of the festival so far, and hopefully the vision here is appreciated.

Africa World Documentary Film Festival Review – MULLY

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Review by Stephen Tronicek

MULLY screens at the Africa World Documentary Film Festival Friday, February 5, 2016 at 6:00. The festival takes place at the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd (63112). For a complete schedule of all of the films, go HERE

Scott Haze’s MULLY brings up the one of the most interesting questions about a documentary. That is, is it possible to make a documentary about a person that is so inherently good, that there’s actually a chance that their story might not be compelling? That is in fact possible. Charles Mully was one of the leading merchants of oil and goods in Africa, but one day he stopped his entire enterprise, and used the large sum of money that he had acquired to help the homeless children of Africa. He eventually grew this into one of the largest children’s care organizations in the world. That’s a powerful story and an inspiring piece of work, but it leaves a notion that there’s nothing really interesting in the subject himself. How do you make a film compelling if the protagonist has already un-ironically become the greatest person on the planet? It certainly helps that Mully himself is a very charismatic person. He’s mostly featured as an offscreen narrator, but he’s a warm storyteller who can really carry much of the story.

I also helps to show how the actions of a good person can lead to the dislike of others. For all his good intentions there were still people that Mully failed to satisfy, or who he burdened too much. The accounts of these people are what makes the film so rewarding. They mostly include family members who slowly had to watch the business that he had built fall apart as he dumped money into saving the children, but their talk about his detachment from them and his all giving into this plan create a palpable sense of tension as one starts to realize that everything in this process could have fallen apart.
A spiritual element that the film has also keeps it engaging. The whole “man being so good” ideals of the film perfectly ties in with the more secular aspects of the story, and even the most jaded person will break at it. There’s too much confidence in Mully, and the film to make it seem in anyway preachy.
In the effort to tell Mully’s story there are also acted sections it the film. They are just as compelling as the rest of it, and the actors are real finds. It gives the sense that the filmmakers could have made a narrative drama out of Mully’s story and it would have been just as good. If one pops up from the same filmmakers it wouldn’t be a surprise.

MULLY is a good documentary about a subject who is surprisingly compelling. Mully himself is an interesting character, and the way that his story and actions affected people is even more interesting. This seems like a comfort food movie, and is definitely a more optimistic documentary.

45 YEARS – The Review

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One would think that after 45 years of marriage, a husband and wife would know everything about each other. As the British drama 45 YEARS reveals, in devastating fashion, there are some unknowns that may always remain between two people.

Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay give brilliant performances as a long-married couple in 45 YEARS, a subtle, moving drama about a couple whose lives are changed by an event long in the past. Rampling is deservedly nominated for an Oscar, after having gathered already a number of awards for her riveting performance, a performance that shows what a real actress can do.

As Kate (Rampling) and Geoff (Courtenay) Mercer prepare for their 45th anniversary party taking place at the end of that week, Geoff gets a letter from Switzerland, that reveals unknown parts of a long-ago past that have a profound effect on their marriage.

The film begins with the couple putter happily about their rural English cottage home, taking long walks with their dog and trips into the nearby Norfork village, where they meet with old friends. They have the kind of comfortable, almost telepathic connection of a happy long-married couple. Despite never having children, they seem content living a comfortable middle-class retirement after careers as a teacher for Kate and factory manager for Geoff.

When the letter arrives, things begin to take a strange turn. The letter, written in German that Geoff struggles to read, tells him that the body of his long-ago girlfriend Katya has been found in a crevasse where she fell to her death decades earlier. The letter comes to Geoff because he and Katya had been hiking through the Alps when the accident happened, and Geoff has been listed as her husband, as they were posing as a married couple although they were not actually married. The letter asked him, as next-of-kin, to come to Switzerland to identify the body although it could not be retrieved from the ice, something that would require him to hike up the mountain.

The request was impractical, of course, and it seems as if Geoff dismisses it. Kate vaguely remembered her husband telling her about the girlfriend who died before they met but had not thought much about it. Yet, as the week progresses, Geoff’ seems more agitated and obsessed with the long-dead woman, going through old mementos in the attic and secretly smoking again. Kate is put in the strange position of feeling jealous of a long-vanished rival, wondering about what it means for her marriage.

After seeming the kind of couple their friends hold up as a perfect marriage, that their marriage can be thrown into a sudden crisis by someone long dead, gone before they even met, seems inconceivable. Still, the film reveals how someone can be married to someone else for many years and still not truly know that person.

The film avoids the stereotypes commonly found is films about older people. British director Andrew Haigh (“Weekend”) structures the drama as a day-by-day countdown, as they prepare for a party to celebrate their 45th anniversary. Courtenay is excellent but the drama’s real focus is on Rampling, who delivers the performance of a lifetime.

As they count down the days to the anniversary party, the news works on their relationship, with Kate feeling an unreasonable jealousy of a dead rival, and Geoff descending into a secretive nostalgia, where he talks about going to Switzerland to see her body, still encased in ice and inaccessible, sneaking up to the attic to go through old mementos from that time in his life.

While Kate’s view of her marriage is unraveling at home, they have to maintain their “perfect couple” facade for their friends as they prepare from the big party. The anniversary seems an odd one to celebrate with a big party but we learn that a 40th anniversary party had been canceled after Geoff had a health crisis. The 45 year mark might seem like a good substitute for a couple where there are questions about whether the husband will make it to the 50th.

45 YEARS is exquisitely acted with Rampling giving a tour-de-force performance of such subtle power it is breathtaking. The subtle, sensitive way this story is told adds to its strength, an quiet yet powerful exploration of emotions and perceptions. Rampling is astounding, and while Courtenay is excellent, it is her performance dominates in this film. While Courtenay’s emotions are all on the surface, even where Geoff is less forthcoming on his thoughts, Rampling’s performance is all subtlety and small gestures. In the final sequence, a series of emotions play across her face indicating she is seeing her husband in a new and unwelcome way, one that undermines all she believes about her marriage.

The film ends as a shattering realization dawns on Kate, while she is surrounded by people at the festive party. The epiphany is one that she must face going forward, and effect on the audience is devastating, despite the subtle way it unfolds across Rampling’s face and through her body language. It is a haunting scene, painful and inevitable, one that will linger in the mind just as 45 YEARS does.

45 YEARS OPENS IN ST. LOUIS ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 29TH AT LANDMARK’S PLAZA FRONTENAC CINEMA

OVERALL RATING:  5 OUT OF 5 STARS

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THE FINEST HOURS – The Review

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Toss on the life jackets (or as they were called during WWII, “Mae Wests”) and prepare yourself for a nautical thriller, one “inspired by true events” (barely a month into 2016 and here’s the second “non-fiction” flick after 13 HOURS). Now it’s not a wartime actioner with destroyers battling subs. As you may have gathered from the numerous TV spots, this story is more of “man versus Mother Nature” one, along the lines of THE PERFECT STORM from way back in 2000. Since then we’ve seen film heroes fighting storms and killer waves in LIFE OF PI, ALL IS LOST, and the very recent (maybe six weeks) IN THE HEART OF THE SEA. This new flick is not set a couple hundred years ago like that whale-hunting adventure, only 64 years next month. This is a tale of determination and courage exemplified by the US Coast Guard in one of the most astounding sea rescues, often referred in maritime legend and lore as THE FINEST HOURS.

The quiet seacoast village of Chatham, MA is where we first encounter Coast Guard Boatswain’s Mate First Class Bernard Webber (Chris Pine) in late 1951 as he meets Miriam (Holliday Grainger), on a blind date that a buddy has arranged. Jump ahead a few months, and things are going so well that the two decide to marry. Although as a formality, Bernie needs to get the OK from his boss, Warrant Officer Cluff (Eric Bana). But it’s a hectic day as a brutal “nor’ easter” storm is approaching. Meanwhile, ten miles off the coast, the T2 oil tanker SS Pendleton is being pummeled by said storm. First assistant engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) pleads over the ship’s phone with the captain to reduce speed. When Ray gets no response he sends one of the crew to run to the ship’s bow with an update. The sailor is horrified to see that the bow is gone (a great effects shot), the ship has split in two with the front half sinking into the sea. Ray must try to find a way to steer his half into the shoal while several crewmen insist that they use the lifeboats (useless against the violent wind and waves). Back at Chatham Station, the radio picks up distress calls from another tanker, SS Fort Mercer, but a closer radar blip shows up, the Pendleton. Cluff orders Webber to head out in the 36 foot wooden motor lifeboat the CG36500 with three others, just as Miriam shows up. She pleads with Bernie not to go, but he knows that they are the only hope for those men at sea. Despite his courage, can they make their way through the storm before Ray and his men perish?

As the soft-spoken, awkward Webber, Pine is almost playing the inverse of the film role that has brought him enormous success-the cocky younger rebooted Captain James T Kirk. There’s a sweetness to the shy sailor in the opening courtship sequences, but this almost works against the big action set pieces at the film’s center. His determination is admirable, but he almost merges with the steering wheel with his low key persona. Grainger is nearly the polar opposite as Miriam, whose personality runs over her usually passive fiancee. After the dreamy “meet cute” intro, she often comes off as strident and overbearing (almost emasculating) when she invades the CG station.
She’s particularly grating at she spouts an almost endless mantra to Cluff- “Call him back in. Call him back in. Call…etc.”. It’s a shame that the script does not serve the talented Ms. G. At least their characters are given more personality than the rest of the cast. Affleck  is convincing as the voice of calm and reason on the floundering tanker, going from being MacGyver, rigging a way to steer, to a the Mr. Spock-like logical debater with a sailor insisting on using the lifeboats. Bana has little to do beside trotting out a Southern drawl, looking concerned, and being exasperated with Miriam.

The most underused may be Ben Foster as Webber’s co-captain on the rescue boat, who offers little beyond a world-weary cynicism. What is an incredibly inspiring true tale of courage is seriously scuttled by an inconsistent script, despite solid direction by Craig Gillespie. The three screenwriters attempt to mesh an intimate character study/romance with epic adventure making the finished piece neither fish nor fowl. Once the Chatham group is aware of the Pendleton’s plight, the movie settles into a pattern: Bernie’s boys getting  tossed about the waves like a game of “hot potato”, cut to the antics of the increasingly abrasive Miriam, then cut away to the sullen Sybert arguing with his crew as the water seeps in. The repetitive rhythms wear down the most dedicated film goer ( losing 20 minutes might’ve made the whole thing a bit more buoyant). The thick “Baaasten” accents also wear thin (“Hey Webbah’! Webbah’!”) even as they mock Cluff’s ultra-genteel deep South twang. Perhaps due to the Disney label (the ole’ castle logo opens the flick), there are no rough edges to these hard-bitten sea dogs (there’s no one that “cusses’ like a sailor”). At least the vintage fashions and autos (love those tank-like behemoths) are great eye candy. Oh, and the 3D upconvert doesn’t add anything aside constant sea spray The real-life heroes deserve to be remembered while the soggy, water-logged, dreary dramatics of THE FINEST HOURS will be forgotten. Film overboard!

1.5 Out of 5

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SON OF SAUL – The Review

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Once again, a gifted film maker brings us a new work inspired by the last great global conflict, World War II. And like many other previous films, this is set in the concentration camps, pehraps the most famous of them all, Auschwitz. It is a tale of horror and redemption, sacrifice and suffering. Yes, movie goers have seen countless stories, in documentaries and docu-dramas. So, just what sets this one apart, why has it become the Oscar front-runner for Best Foreign Language Film? For one thing, the movie hails from Hungary, a fresh perspective from a revitalized film community. Plus, the imaginative and innovative way the story is told coupled with an riveting performance at its center accounts for the power reactions to SON OF SAUL.

A brief written prologue expalins the function of the Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners tasked with keeping the camps running smoothly for the Nazi officers. They live as long as they continue being useful, but they too will be eliminated eventually. The film centers on one of these men who rush about: Saul (Geza Rohrig). In the opening sequence he and his co-workers (their tattered jackets marked on the back with a red “X”), hurriedly usher in a new batch of prisoners, helping them disrobe before the mandatory “shower”. The loud speakers telling them to be quick or else their soup will get cold. As the massive shower doors clang shut, Saul gathers the coats, clothes, and suitcases. After the screaming and the pounding of the walls finish, the door opens, and Saul’s crew gathers up the bodies (the guards only refer to them as “pieces”). But everone is soon shocked to hear one of the bodies coughing. A boy of eight or nine years somehow survived the gas. Saul is the most surprised as this miracle has touched what is left of his abused soul. The relief is brief as one of the “medical supervsiors” snuffs out the lad’s life. But Saul now has a mission: this boy (who Saul believes could be his son) will not join the others in the ovens. Risking his life, Saul will locate a rabbi who will say the Kaddish over “his son” and give him a proper burial. Over the next two days Saul sneaks past cruel guards, joins a work crew, and distributes countless bribes in the quest to restore his dignity and humanity.

Director Laszlo Nemes made several stylistic decisions which invigorate the often familiar historical settings. Rather than going for an epic, widescreen image, he has instead decides to frame the action and drama within an almost square box, reminicent of last year’s dramatic thriller MOMMY. That film was presented in an 1:1 aspect ratio, while Saul is in the slighter larger 1.37:1, and unlike the earlier film the image never goes wide for effect or whimsical effect. This heightens the immediacy and intimacy of the story, allowing us to zero in on Saul himself. The camera is often in POV (point of view) mode as we see the action along with him. For most of the time, the camera encircles Saul, right on his back, flanking his shoulder. tight on his face almost like a flitting moth, darting from side to side. The truly places us at the center of things,as we hear the danger (shots, screaming) before it is in view, as Saul searches for the source. It can be a tad claustrophobic, but it produces an immersive feeling better than most 3 D film experiences.

All the film flourishes would be for naught without the compelling work by Rohrig at the story’s center as Saul. When we first meet him, Saul is merely a mindless drone, his heavy sad eyes dart to the ground when his captors bark out orders, until his inner program prompts him into the robotic rituals that make prolong his life. But with the boy upsets the routine by defeating the deadly gas, a light flickers in Saul’s eyes. Rohrig shows us his amazement that evil was thwarted, for a too brief time. From there he is pure determination, confounding his captors and co-workers. Saul is a man trudging through a nightmare, who suddenly slapped awake. He refuses to be distracted, even by a fleeting offer of physical contact from a female prisoner. The entire supporting cast is excellent, along with the recreation of the crumbling camps. All these elements contribute to make SON OF SAUL a powerful, unforgettable motion picture.

4.5 Out of 5

SON OF SAUL opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas

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KUNG FU PANDA 3 – The Review

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In the mostly satisfying second sequel to the charming 2008 hit, Po the panda (voice of Jack Black) returns in pursuit of food, inner peace, family reconnections, and more food. KUNG FU PANDA 3 opens with wise old turtle Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) attacked and defeated by centuries-old nemesis Kai (J.K. Simmons), a sword-wielding bull. Kai has crushed many martial arts legends and swiped their chi (mojo), which he keeps in jade ornaments and uses to raise his mighty zombie army. Kai turns his attention to Po, whose fate it is, he has learned, to conquer him. But Po has just reconnected with his long-lost father Li (Bryan Cranston), and finally met more of his species, including a potential love interest in the form of Mei Mei (Kate Hudson). Aware he must harness his own chi to defeat Kai, Po and his pop take refuge in a secret mountainside village where their kind have gathered after the panda extermination detailed in the previous film, to prepare for battle with Kai and his evil minions.

Much of the freshness and novelty that made the original film such a kick is lacking in KUNG FU PANDA 3, but kids who enjoyed the first two installments of Po’s saga aren’t likely to complain. It’s entertaining enough but feels too familiar and a bit overstuffed. The three new major characters are fun additions but they crowd out the screen time of the fighting team of Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan), and Crane (David Cross) as well as Po’s adoptive dad, the dumpling-cooking goose Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) who all return. Despite their obvious importance to Po’s success as a fighter, these characters are pushed too far to the background, so as not to take the spotlight away from our hero’s bonding with his father. Many of the jokes are retreads (Po’s clumsy at martial arts – but boy he sure loves to eat!), and the subplot about Po reconnecting with his long-lost dad is so simplistically sentimental that it’s more patronizing than heartening.  This new villain Kai is formidable enough but his brutish design and attitude don’t seem to fit the KUNG FU PANDA universe, looking more like he wandered in from the upcoming Warcraft movie. The quality of Dreamwork’s animation is top-notch (as expected), the 3-D effects are well-integrated instead of superfluous, and Jack Black charms the audience with enough one-liners, but it loses a couple of points for a narrative that overstretches by at least 15 minutes. Kids may love it and parents won’t be terribly bored but unlike the TOY STORY series that added real depth and heart to each sequel, KUNG FU PANDA 3 is more of the same.

3 of 5 Stars

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MOJAVE – The Review

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Serial killer movies are like westerns or gangster flicks; there are all levels of them from cheap slasher exploitation to procedural ones where the heroes are scientific-minded detectives and all sorts of variations in between. MOJAVE, written and directed by Oscar winner William Monahan (for writing THE DEPARTED) is the existential  and psychological type.  It stars Oscar Isaac, Mark Wahlberg, Garret Hedlund, and Walton Goggins. With that cast and pedigree, you would expect MOJAVE to be a major release, but the new film has slipped quietly into few theaters this weekend with little fanfare.  It’s seriously flawed and I understand why the studio had little faith in it, but it has its moments and for adventurous moviegoers it’s worth seeking out.

Garrett Hedlund stars in MOJAVE as Thomas, a shaggy-haired movie producer who has it all: a beautiful wife and child, a sprawling home, and a foxy French mistress (Hayley Magnus). We first meet him as he hops out of bed and drives his jeep to the titular desert with nothing but two bottles of vodka and some water. It seems he’s out there to end his life but changes his mind when leather-clad drifter Jack (Oscar Isaac) stumbles onto his campsite.  Jack holds a rifle with seven notches in it, the same number as murder victims that have recently been found out there in the Mojave. The two men wax philosophical for a while about Jesus and Ahab and Shakespeare and selling one’s soul, exchanging elliptical dialog like “Who are you?”…”No one in particular”….”Anyone in general?” Thomas manages to avoid Jack’s deadly intent, but in the process he accidentally kills an innocent man. He heads back to L.A., but Jack is on his tail CAPE FEAR-style, with revenge on his mind.

MOJAVE is at times a fairly intense movie, visually stylish and thematically creepy. It begins extremely well before descending into a series of inevitable murders and confrontations and a predictable climax where our hero discovers that when push comes to shove, we’re all brutes and animals. With THE DEPARTED, Monahan had the frame of an earlier Chinese crime film to hang his story and dialog on, but this film is less plot-driven and more a rambling character study. The acting is uneven. Hedlund is scowling and surly throughout, mumbling with an ever-present cigarette dangling from his lips. You wonder how he ever became a movie exec. In fact, the world of Hollywood insiders in MOJAVE plays more like that of vulgar mid-level gangsters than successful movie folk. Wahlberg in a small role phones in his performance. I don’t mean that as an insult – he has four scenes and in three of them he’s talking on the phone. Goggins is low key but funny in another minor part as Thomas’ manager. Best is Oscar Isaac, excellent as an intelligent psychotic who knows the rules and manages to violate every code of human decency while still keeping arm’s-length from the law (where are the police in this movie anyway?). Unfortunately, Jack is given little motivation for his evil deeds and no back story. It’s not a great movie, but if you want to get in out of the cold for a couple of hours, you could do worse than MOJAVE.

3 of 5 Stars

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THE 5TH WAVE – The Review

Alex Roe, left, and Chloë Grace Moretz star in Columbia Pictures' "The 5th Wave"

Well film fans, 2016’s not even a month old and we’re already back in “young adult novel” land at the multiplex. Well, it’s not the tear-jerker terminal romance of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS or IF I STAY. No it’s another one about a horrible future in which several special “gifted” (and highly photogenic) teenagers are humanity’s only hope. Betcha’ thought that the last installment of THE HUNGER GAMES would bring down the curtain on these tormented teen tales. Not likely since a new series pops up almost every week at your local bookstore (oh, we are lucky to have these fine establishments, so support them). While this new film does possess familiar elements of other “YA” novel based movies, the producers have thrown in a few unique themes and twists. And it stars one of our most interesting young actors (the star of the earlier mentioned STAY). You won’t need a surfboard to catch THE 5TH WAVE, just a theatre ticket.

The flick fades in on another awful day in life of eighteen year-old Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz). Her narration quickly brings us back to the good times just months ago. Cassie was enjoying her last year of high school…going to “keggers”, mooning over that dreamy Ben Parish (Nick Robinson), and loving her picture perfect family: Mom (Maggie Siff), Dad (Ron Livingston), and sweet kid brother Sam (Zackary Arthur). But then that gnarly spaceship showed up. More like a massive fortress floating across the country. The occupants (dubbed “the others”) make no effort to communicate, so the military doesn’t engage them. Then the others strike by emitting an aerial “pulse” that knocks out all electrical and battery power (this is named the “first wave”). The Sullivans survive the chaos in time for the second wave consisting of brutal earthquakes and tidal waves. Then much of the remaining populace is claimed by the third wave, a souped-up, even deadlier version of the “avian flu”. Cassie’s family makes their way to a makeshift woodland commune until the military arrives (hmm, their vehicles work fine). The commander, Colonel Vosch (Liev Schrieber) tells of the fourth wave: the others inhabit and take over human earth bodies. In order to combat this, all children under 18 will be taken by bus to the Air Force base to be scanned for alien infestation. A melee breaks out after Cassie doesn’t make it back to Sam’s bus in time (oh, and all the adults are killed). She roams the countryside until an injury lands her in the home of the sympathetic (and also dreamy) Evan Walker (Alex Roe). Meanwhile Sam and all the surviving kids (including Ben!) are trained to become alien fighters by Vosch and Sergeant Reznik (Maria Bello). But no matter the distance between them or the danger, Cassie is determined to re-unite with Sam.

Ms Moretz utilizes her considerable acting skills to bat trying to smooth the rough edges of this often clichéd story. She shows us Cassie slowly morphing from free-wheeling and carefree to focused, desperate hero, letting us see her nearly give in to panic before improvising a plan of action. Robinson’s Ben also goes through a similar (but unseen) arc, becoming a leader to the other “lost boys” (and girls), and earning the nickname “Zombie”. Roe, completing this triangle, is the required hunky “beefcake” complete with soulful eyes, who conveys a world-weary sadness, prior to his bathing in the stream “eye candy” sequence. Schrieber is stern gravitas as the soldier/father figure (or maybe a tough, grizzled uncle). Bello is almost unrecognizable in heavy makeup and severe peaked hair (topped with a southern twang)  oozes cruel contempt as she indoctrinates her new recruits. Special mention should be made of the often scene-stealing Maika Monroe (star of last year’s cult thriller IT FOLLOWS) who dyes her sunny blonde locks raven black to portray tough girl (er, “grrrl”) as the goth gladiator Ringer, her racoon-like eyes honing in any weakness (now her backstory would make for a great spin-off flick).

Three screenwriters, Susannah Grant, Avika Goldsman, and Jeff Pinkner, have tried to craft the desperate threads of Rick Yancey’s novel into a coherent script, but the source material often gets the better of them. Yes, the story owes quite a bit to TWILIGHT and THE HUNGER GAMES, but so many other inspirations (perhaps too many) are tossed into this overcooked stew: INDEPENDENCE DAY, CONTAGION, THE THING, STARSHIP TROOPERS, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, along with 70’s Irwin Allen disaster flicks. From the opening sequence we also feel like we’re not far from TV’s “The Walking Dead” (this movie’s shot in Georgia too) with Cassie dashing about the woods and empty streets, toting an AK-47, her face smudged with grime and dirt (but her golden hair fresh from a shampoo commercial). But the action never meshes smoothly with the “which boy will she choose” soggy romance. The effects are competently done even though the scenes of the “second wave” play like bonus DVD extras from SAN ANDREAS. Director J Blakeson tries to guide (using far too much slow-motion) the subplots like a cinema traffic cop, but everything collides and crashes in a clunky muddeled ending that wants to set things up for a franchise. A 6th wave, perhaps? Not when THE 5TH WAVE sinks like a stone. Glub, glub!

1.5 Out of 5

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NORM OF THE NORTH – The Review

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Sometimes a film critic has to throw himself or herself on a bomb for the good of the movie-going public. One such bomb is NORM OF THE NORTH. I see these movies so you don’t have to.

NORM OF THE NORTH is an animated movie about a polar bear that has to go to New York to save his Arctic home. What could go wrong with that kids’ movie premise? Well, in the case of “Norm of the North,” everything. What is the threat that Norm and his little lemming buddies want to save their home from – climate change? oil drilling? No, it is a housing development. Yeah, this Arctic is threatened with gentrification, at the hands of a billionaire developer named Mr. Greene (wink, wink).

Yep, that is about as funny as this film gets.

Norm (voiced by Rob Schneider) is a clumsy polar bear who is object of ridicule among the residents – caribou, orcas, seals, lemmings, other polar bears – in his frozen Arctic seaside home. He is not only a bad hunter but it too soft-hearted to actually eat the few seals he does catch (what he does live on we never learn). The Arctic animals seem to spend their days waiting for tourist ships to show up, so they can put on a show for them. Really – show-biz singing and dancing with costumes and a few Sea World type stunts. It seems pretty strange but to these characters, it is normal. However, Norm is not fond of the tourists and does not think they belong in the Arctic. Still, Norm has a knack for dancing, which he uses to entertain his family, and another, unwanted gift – he can speak “human.” This ability to talk to people is a quirk he shares with his beloved Grandpa (voice of Colm Meaney), who thinks Norm could become the King of the North.

One day, something new shows up on the ice – a house – along with a real estate marketing director named Vera (Heather Graham) and a crew to shoot a commercial for the new development from Greene Homes. The plan is to sell luxury condos in the Arctic. Norm worries that the Arctic home will suffer to same fate as his flamingo friend’s in Florida – first tourists, then year-round homes. He determines to go to New York, along with his durable lemming friends, to stop real estate developer Mr. Greene’s (Ken Jeong) nefarious plan to turn the Arctic into the next Florida.

Turning the Arctic into the next Florida is a kind-of back door climate change reference but not one children are going to get. I guess one has to give the creators of this animated mess some credit for coming up with the weirdest premise ever.  Unfortunately, the creativity pretty much stops there. Story and character elements of other kids’ movies are recycled, including bits of “The Lion King” and “Happy Feet.” The animation is lackluster at best. Even worse, “Norm of the North” is not even funny.

Most of the movie is pretty serious about its absurd “save our home” premise. What little humor it has hardly brings a chuckle – mostly fart, poop and pee jokes, some lame jokes for parents, and jabs the villainous Mr. Greene. Greene is a big ego who sports a pony-tail, wears ’70s clothes, and decorates his fancy office with Asian themes, practicing meditation while abusing his employees. At one point, there is even a throwaway line about a one-dimensional villain – that is about as funny as it gets. The writers use their Arctic location for set jokes about Sea World, tourists, card-playing caribou, movie directors and real estate – jokes so weak one hardly cracks a smile – then move the story to New York, where they miss all chances for any fish-out-of-water humor based on the idea of a polar bear in New York.

It is no wonder the studio dumped this smelly kettle of fish of a movie in the January doldrums, The question is why it did not go straight to video. One can guess that the creators of this frozen mess were trolling for some unsuspecting parents who are fishing for a family movie in this month’s sea of grown-up Oscar-hopeful films. Don’t take the bait.

NORM OF THE NORTH opens in theaters on Friday, January 15, 2016.

OVERALL RATING:  1 OUT OF 5 STARS

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